The Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Accra, the Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie, CSSp, has extended episcopal invitation to all Priests, Religious and lay faithful to the Accra Archdiocesan May Day Games and Business Fair scheduled for Monday, May 2, 2022 at the El-Wak Stadium.
Championed by the Accra Archdiocesan Catholic Laity Council and the Catholic Professionals Guild as a laity-driven event, Archbishop Kwofie said in a video message to the people of God of the Church in Accra: “I will be there and so I will like to see Priests with their parishioners who have dressed up to play football, volley ball and other games.”
Wile extending invitation to all Catholics in Accra, the Chief Shepherd also added, “I will be there and I pray you will come to support this initiative…”
The May Day Games and Business Fair is one of the activities put in place to bring together all the laity and Catholic Professionals in the Accra Archdiocese to understand their roles and to make their presence in the Church count.
Some of the fun games to be held will include volleyball, football, table tennis, tug of war, athletics, sack race, lime and spoon, draft, scrabble and inter Deanery children Bible quiz and eating competition.
The societal competitors would include Catholic Women Association, Christian Mothers Association, Knights and Ladies of Marshall, Knights of St. John International and Ladies Auxiliaries, St Theresa of the Child Jesus, Young Christian Workers, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, St. Anthony’s Guild, Legion of Mary, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Perpetual Help Confraternity, Catechists Association, Catholic Association of Social and Religious Advancement and the various Youth Groups.
In a bid to encourage all Catholics in Accra to participate in the event, Archbishop Kwofie in the video message said, “I invite you all in your numbers to the El-Wak stadium on Monday, May 2, 2022 at 8:30am. The business of the day will start with the Celebration of the Eucharist.”
According to the Archbishop, “We are going to meet to celebrate what we call May Day celebration. On this day, we give thanks to God for giving us labour, the work of human hands to continue the work of creation instituted by God himself.”
He added, “St. Joseph, the husband of Mary was a carpenter and God wants all of us to work as Joseph did.”
Archbishop Kwofie noted that the Business Fair was being organised alongside with the games to showcase the businesses of Catholics so that they can create wealth.
The May Day Games was started by the CPG in 2016 at the St. Thomas Aquinas School, Cantonments, with the blessing and patronage of the former Archbishop of Accra, the Most Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle and Archbishop Kwofie.
The event was moved from the St. Thomas Aquinas to the Mary Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church at Airport West in 2019. As a result of the COVID-19 restrictions, last year’s (2021) May Day Games took a different dimension where Professional Guilds had the opportunity to make strong proposals to the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra regarding how the Guilds can make impact in the Church. St. Bakhita Catholic Church at Community 20, Lashibi, hosted the event.
This year’s event was launched at the St. Maurice Catholic Church at La; Sts Thomas More and John Fisher at Achimota, St. Kizito at Nima and St. Sylvanus, Pokuase with the aim of sensitizing the Clergy and Laity in Accra on the need to patronise the event which had been sanctioned by the Archbishop.
Edward Kwame Ayem, Robert Dela Mawuenyegah and Rejoice Bukari, Coordinator, Public Relations Officer and Planning Committee member respectively of the Catholic Professionals Guild jointly performed the launch at Nima St. Kizito and Achimota Ss. Thomas More and John Fisher.
Timothy Sowah, the Chairman of Accra Archdiocesan Catholic Council performed the launch at La while Edmund Ametordzi, a member of the Events and Public Affairs Committee of the Accra Archdiocesan Catholic Laity Council performed it at Pokuase St. Sylvanus.
Launching the event at the designated Parishes on Sunday, April 24, they said the Accra Archdiocesan Catholic Laity Council, powered by Catholic Professionals Guild were seeking to create a platform to consciously and actively promote Catholic owned businesses as well as bring Catholics together to evangelise through Games.
According to them, the May Day Games is the mother of all the fairs to be organised within the year as an Archdiocesan event as well as be an opportunity to have the various groups and societies in the Church engage each other in fun games whilst socialising on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, they added.
“The idea is to have one major event that is the annual gathering of ALL CATHOLICS in the Archdiocese of Accra (over 400,000) for fun and entertainment in fulfilment of our SYNODALITY,” they said.
Adding, they stressed, “This will be a major occasion to unite the Church and enable networking that will promote beneficial partnerships and fuel wealth creation. We need therefore, to engineer it properly so it gains traction and ensures benefits for all and sundry.”
Touching on the Business Fair, they stated, “This project will provide Catholic Entrepreneurs and Professionals the opportunity to showcase their products and services to the larger Catholic family and will also offer professional support to these businesses to better position them.”
According to them, three major interventions would be rolled out including Business Development Clinics where businesses, especially start-ups, would be offered professional help by way of the engagement of professional business development experts from the Business, Management and Finance Professionals Guild to coach such businesses with the view to putting them on a better pedestal.
“This will not be a one off event but a continuous process which will be sustained for as long as required to achieve the goals,” they added.
By Damian Avevor
